Monday Mix-Tape: When I Was Bored For The 7th Time

There are certain artists that You Must Like, and likewise, there are some songs that are The Best Ever. Then there are songs that may one day be The Best Ever, but right now are The Next Big Thing or One Of The Singles Of The Year. The Most Exciting Artist Right Now Making The Music Of The Moment, etc.

It's no coincidence that most of them are also as boring as batshit.

So, for this week's Mix-Tape, because I'm a generous type, I thought I'd share my distaste for some of the songs I see as hopelessly overrated and tiresomely trotted out as Best Ever or what have you. I would add, "Feel free to tell me you disagree" but then most of you have that down pat these days. Go to.

* * *

Eric Clapton - Layla (Unplugged)

Coffee houses and DINK dinner parties the world over must've lost their collective shit when hyperrated (that's, like, overrated but it goes to 11) guitarist Clapton diddled this faux-blues version of the equally overrated original Layla on MTV's beigetastic Unplugged series. At least he was modest enough not to acousticise Duane Allman's rifftastic signature solo - but without that bit of pealing axemanship, Layla is shown up for what it is underneath all the can-I-help-you riffs: a bore.

Radiohead - Creep

Really, I probably hate the pseudo-Eno/Aphex Twin noodling of OK Computer and Kid A more than Creep, but f--k me, how is this Festival Of Le Boring really any better than any of Nickelback/Goo Goo Dolls/Deep Blue Something's slow-dance-at-the-footy-club ballads of self-loathing?

Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks

Every year the cardigan-wearing set choose their "it" song and over this summer almost past, it was this insufferable whistled ditty. "Pure pop!" they gushed; "Tiresome Scando pap", I thought. Not only has it been done before, it's been done better; see: The Concretes, Jens Lekman, etc. And apart from that, this song is boring. Evidence: a) Their album is called Writer's Block, b) Their names are Peter, Bjorn and John. They called their band Peter Bjorn John. If I had my way I'd jam their teeth so far down their throats that whistling would be nothing more than a dream.

Arctic Monkeys - I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Everyone said "future of music"; I heard a variation on the same old Thursday-night-special brand of young-ish blokes playing wailing solos over skittish drums to suburban pubs full of drunken engineering students and girls doing the dance of the sacred handbags.

Frank Sinatra - My Way

Choosing My Way-era Sinatra over the subtle brilliance of, say, The Wee Small Hours is like choosing bloated Elvis moaning his way through Suspicious Minds rather than the snake-hipped King's That's Alright, Mama. The solipsistic and tedious My Way illustrates everything that was bad about Sinatra (the ego, the bullish lack of irony) and none of the goodness. Plus it guaranteed karaoke hell for years to come.

Metallica, otherwise known as "the metal band it's okay to like", did actually have some excellent songs (One, Enter Sandman), so why this MORsome chorus pedal zzz-fest is continually celebrated - with hushed, bong-sucking reverence - as "totally amazing, maaaan" is perpetually puzzling.

Robbie Williams - Angels

On the topic of "okay to like", Robbie Williams has to be one of the most confusingly critically lauded artists out there - because, really, he's just not that good. His cheeky chappy demeanour does nothing to make his constant dribble of White Male Pain anthems - with Angels the nadir/xenith of the genre - anything less than elevator music for terminally upwardly mobile suburbanites who are pissed off because Ikea told them it'd be another two weeks until they have a new shipment of Billy bookshelves in white-on-white.

Lily Allen - Smile

OMG LYK SHE TOTEZ WEARS TRAINERS WITH PROM DRESSES OMG STYLE ICON!!1!one! So Allen can come up with remotely punky-cute rhymes and weak-voiced trilling over here's-one-we-prepared-earlier beats and tunes. So what? I'm a staunch defender of pop but I'd much rather listen to M.I.A or Cyndi Lauper if I want some right-on girl power with my sweet tunes.

U2 - One

Further cemented into the undeserving pantheon of WorthyTM rock songs by Johnny Cash's ponderous deathbed cover, One should've been an early warning as to the sorts of glory-hungry posturing Bono would get up to in his later years; the song is made for slow-motion video montages of natural disasters and the horrors of war etc etc etc. And I bet that Bono knew what he was onto when he wrote the bastard thing.

LATEST COMMENTS

You know what else is completely lame and overrated: Snow Patrol, "Chasing Cars" or whatever. When I first heard Snow Patrol I thought it was Alex Lloyd, enough said.

My boyfriend played me a CD the other day and said "Guess who this is." I said, "Coldplay? Augie March? The Smiths? The Cure? Jet??"

It was Bloc Party - CB

Posted by: JS on February 26, 2007 9:08 AM

Very well said! Though I do have that damn Arctic Monkeys song in my head now and it takes hours to get that thing out.

And I think it says something about Creep that an Australian Idol cover managed to sound better than the original.

My choice for one of the most overrated songs recently would have to Muse-Super Massive Blackhole. I worship regularly at the alter of Bellamy, but that song just didn't do it for me. I nearly had a breakdown the night I stayed up late just to see it on Rage.

Posted by: Vincent on February 26, 2007 9:43 AM

Oh, I forgot to include anything by Augie March. I find their music in general fits snugly into the batshit genre. Especially their poor effort on the Midnight Oil tribute album.

Posted by: Vincent on February 26, 2007 9:57 AM

And of course there is the Best Aussie Song, Ever (and if you disagree you are rooly downright unAustrlian): Cold Chisel's Khe Sanh (substitute The Angel's Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? if you come from Grafton). Over played, over rated, over hyped.

Posted by: Solo on February 26, 2007 10:19 AM

right on. Nothing annoys me more than being told what I must like. Have you ever tried to tell anyone between 15 and 55 that you don't really enjoy listening to JJJ much?

I pretty much agree with most of your list, though I do enjoy My Way a bit, because, crudulous song though it is, it still showed that, even as a washed-up has-been he had a great voice. Same with Elvis' If I Can Dream and American Trilogy.

As for Layla - well, the original was an okay song on an album full of blues mastery. The unplugged version was a puke-fest on a puke-infested album.

And Q magazine named 'One' the greatest song of all time! More "you must listen" nonsense.

The worst atrocity caused by Robbie Williams' Angels is the fact that Jessica Simpson saw fir to take bad and turn it into worse.

Posted by: Igomi Watabi on February 26, 2007 10:45 AM

Solo, I'm a bit partial to Cold Chisel and the Angels, I guess, but I have to agree with the overexposure of Khe Sanh and AIEGSYFA.

Why do the lesser songs get the overexposure, while some of the really good stuff which can be found on their albums using little more than an archaeologists brush gets totally ignored?

Posted by: Igomi Watabi on February 26, 2007 10:58 AM

Here is my list song "I see as ... tiresomely trotted out as Best Ever or what have you."

Don't get me wrong, these are all great songs and well worth a play - but just not everry bloody week! I love dj'ing, but when the same people come up and ask for the same songs every week, i'm like "Why don't you just buy it and play it on repeat in the comfort of your own home?"
There is more to great music than just the classics! B-side's can surprise you if you give them a chance people! Explore the world of music - tell your local record store what you're into and ask them to give you something different from that.
Ask your local DJ to play you something different, or tune into a station you wouldn't normally listen to - community stations like the KICK 87.6 FM in Penrith are a great place to hear good variety.
We need to stand strong and not wear out the same tracks by repeatedly playing them over and over and over and...

Posted by: DJ Johnny on February 26, 2007 12:17 PM

Speaking of Q magazine, I recall reading their pompous review of a new Paul Simon album in the 90's, sitting in a pompous barber shop waiting for my english hair designer to consult me on short/back/sides. The basically said it was the most boring drivel ever. I reckon it was the closest Paul Simon ever got to the sublime.
It's a memerising listen and beats the hell out of all that chillout, trippy-hoppy crap that no-one listens to anymore.

Oh,good God, DJ Johnny. I feel for you. Those aren't even critically acclaimed as good songs, they're just drunken, drink-spilling yellalongs. I don't think I could cope with doing what you do, if that is what I got.

Posted by: Igomi Watabi on February 26, 2007 2:11 PM

I know how you feel DJ Johnny. When at school I got stuck with the job od DJing all of our events, and I used to have idiots asking for the same song twice (or more) in the same night just because it was the crappy single they all just had to listen to over and over again.

Posted by: Vincent on February 26, 2007 2:47 PM

Why do the lesser songs get the overexposure, while some of the really good stuff which can be found on their albums using little more than an archaeologists brush gets totally ignored?

Posted by: Igomi Watabi at February 26, 2007 10:58 AM

That's an easy one, Igomi-san. So that musical archaeologist such as you (and I, et al) can find them and hold them close as our own. Like, say, Meeting Across The River from Born to Run.

Posted by: Solo on February 26, 2007 2:51 PM

stairway to heaven makes my ears bleed. of all the great led zepp songs which could, and should, make it onto "greatest ever" lists, why is always this dross that gets trotted out??

i hope that wasn't too hurtful clem, but you hurt my feelings by suggesting that snow patrol *shudder* could possibly be mistaken for the smiths. so now we are even.

Posted by: Lizzy on February 26, 2007 3:01 PM

What hypocritical crap - you're on here to bag those who say "this is categorically the best ever" and then you proceed to categprically say otherwise and tell them that it can't be.

For the record, One was a sad love song that has been turned into some sort of anthem for world peace by the masses. That isn't the fault of the song, now the band who sing it. Creep has similarly been raped by those seeking to have a hand on what Radiohead are all about. Just because a song is overplayed, doesn't make it a crap song. Personally, Creep is not my favourite Radiohead song, as No Surprises is nearly impossible to top, but its still a good song which can't be compared to Nickelback and Creed, as that vomitory drivel is the norm these days - when Creep came out it was from a left field genre - British suicide grunge. By all means, dislike the song, but at least come up with a worthy reason.

Why some of the other bloggers give any mention to the Khe Sanh brigade defies belief - there is no need to preach to the converted, as pretty much everyone by now who ISN'T part of the "I've just started going to the pub so I'll sing this song really loudly and prove I'm not a spoilt little rich kid" set knows that a far more truly Australian song is for want of a non-Chisel example, Flame Trees or Bow River, or, and I know there'll be backlash from this, True Blue, which I believe is one of the most UNDER rated songs of all time - generally the "trend setters" sneer at Country Music and deride any meaningful contribution it can make to mainstream appreciation. True Blue is a ball-tearer, and should be recognised more in tis country. Damn It - John Williamson for PM.

Posted by: Sam on February 26, 2007 3:03 PM

Oh,good God, DJ Johnny. I feel for you. Those aren't even critically acclaimed as good songs, they're just drunken, drink-spilling yellalongs. I don't think I could cope with doing what you do, if that is what I got.

By the way Lizzy, agree that there are 20 better Led Zepp songs than Stairway, but again, that doesn't make it a rubbish song.

Rolling Stone makes some crap reviews and overrates songs, but I've always found Q to be pretty fair. They rightly cite Live Forever as the greatest British song ever, unlike every other magazine in world history which would have you believe Wonderwall is some sort of Beethoven-esque masterpiece, and being a Britich mag, they obviously realise that there's a musical world outside the USA.

By the way, is it just me, or are Jet absolute Rock-By-The-Numbers pretenders? Personally can't stand them, but yeah, just seeing whether the hype is still in effect, or are people going off them?

Posted by: Sam on February 26, 2007 3:19 PM

I could type for years on this

Yes it is subjective and I am a grumpy music snob but lots of critically acclaimed songs are just crap

Creep by Radiohead is one of the most overplayed pieces of garbage, made worse by commerical radio having to censor the song - how edgy

Joanna Newsom - I don't like stepping on cats so I don't like music that sounds like it

Darron Hanlon -I whinge therefore I am

Bobby Flynn - he looks and sounds like an extra from the Hills Have Eyes

Bernanrd Fanning - Powderfinger was boring, BF is nauseating

Posted by: Ric on February 26, 2007 4:35 PM

Aahhh, I believe I have found the track that most befits this blog.

And the winner is.......

Black Fingernails, Red Wine.

For some reason, its critically acclaimed, so it must have something going for it, but for me, its just yet another reason to ask "What was so bad about singing about Sweaters?"

The voice that idiot puts on when he sings is sickening, and the "Whu-oh" bit is so annoying I feel like stapling my buttocks together to keep my internal organs intact.

The definition of pretentious gits.

Posted by: Sam on February 26, 2007 4:47 PM

I think you can do better than Bow River and Flame Trees too, Sam.

Posted by: Igomi Watabi on February 26, 2007 5:16 PM

Best Evers are always the worst ever.

It's a heartrending fact that Ike and Tina Turner's 'Nutbush City Limits' reached #4 on the UK singles chart in 1973. But it's also a statistical verity that after thirty-three years of hearing three different versions played billions of times over the waves, 99.9% of those people who made it popular would today rate it as #1 on their Most Hated song list.

However, as repulsive as 'Nutbush' is, the concept that 'Layla' could be perceived as a Best Ever song has me gagging. It's so mundane that it doesn't even deserve to be in the Worst Ever because any recognition on the song is just too much attention.

As for Metallica and U2 - they've had some good hits and unfortunately due to massive fan bases, some trash has become treasure for the producers of these Best Ever CDs.

Then you have the Arctic Monkeys and Lilly Allen: the product of a recent music explosion where it's become a social imperative to have an individual taste in music. Therefore of course EVERYONE who's ANYONE (between the ages of 10-25) listens to Triple J and looks like Jared Leto.

It's a numbers problem. A statistical error where the figures of sales have been recorded, but the huge percentage of people with horrible musical taste, let alone issues of changing musical culture, has not been taken into account.

Hopefully CDs will be gone before any of these 'new artists' make it onto a Best Ever list.

Posted by: Naomi on February 26, 2007 6:22 PM

NOTHING is essential. Figure out what's the least inessential to you and stick with it. When did anyone else's opinion matter?

I have never really taken to this sort of discussion, because what I think is the best song ever, someone will think different. Those stupid polls the Rolling Stone magazine do and the ones done on T.V specials like the ABC's Australia' Favourite Album, are always never totally representative of what everyone thinks.

Like my best friend thinks anything by Jeff Buckley is the best thing since wheel was invented, and I think his music is some of the most boring work ever recorded. And that Grace is one of the most overated works ever.

Its interesting to note that the Radiohead blokes also think Creep is a very ordinary song by their standards. But it held its ground considering it came out while Nirvana and the rest Seattle were holding the rock forte.

Sam, True Blue makes me want to vomit just as much as Khe Sanh - just because the cricketers like it, it doesn't mean the rest of the nation does.

Redgum's 'I Was Only 19' should recieve better recognition than True Blue because it actually brought light on to a national concern. So did Midnight Oil with Beds Are Burning, The Dead Heart and Blue Sky Mining, Yothu Yindi's Treaty, or Goanna with Soild Rock. But do you think those songs will be given the same sort of 'national" recognition as True Blue. No, not really. Frankly True Blue gets too much recognition than it really deserves. Its a song usually sung by southern cross and union jack fixed forty somethings.

As for country music, would you call the boot scooting yee - harring sing like a whiner sound like a Texan, country? Which mostly it all is. Johnny Cash said country music was not really a sound, it was more to do with stories about the land. And if it did have a sound, it was more a "boom - chicka - boom chicka - boom chicka - boom chicka" - like the sound of a train, not the 4 / 4 standard country "rock" beat.

The country he wrote was more folk or rock oriented than country. Aussie group The Waif's is fine example of what Cash would call true country. In a sense, you could say that the black blues of US south was black country or folk, while the blues of Chicago was black rock.

The other songs over looked for True Blue tell a dark tale about Australia and how it once turned its indigenous people, took their land and virtually wiped them out, military servicemen who were sent to a war and were astrocised by their communities because they had to do so or risk going to gaol, and the other song talks about blues asbestos mining and asbestos related deaths.

But as it always goes, hail a song of patriotism we can all sing in a pub together over a VB with red yed mist. And forget and rubbish the songs that tells the truth's we don't want to hear about our country.

Although Peter Garrett is not helping what the Oils stood for with his back flips in politics. He turned to water over his views of US foreign policies and is starting to compromise everything he believes. There is no way he has changed his mind on what he was speaking and singing about in the 80's. Those convictions never die, but you do hear the compromise in his voice - its almost tragic. Actually, it is tragic. Where's Rob Hirst, save your mate before its too late.

But any way, if you were to talk to my mum, she'd tell you ABBA's Dancing Queen or Living Doll by Cliff Richard were the best songs ever written. The worst song would probably have to be Love Me Do by the Beatles, I am committing rock and roll blasphemy here - but its true, its not their best and neither is Yesterday.

The most exciting thing I ever heard was Gimmie Gimmie Shock Treatment by the one and only Ramones.

Posted by: Tupelo on February 27, 2007 12:59 AM

Tupelo, agree with some things you've written - esp. your Ramonal appreciation, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue being my personal preference but each to their own. Your evaluation of True Blue, I Was Only 19 etc. is coming from an issue-awareness standpoint, rather than one of purely what a song has to be to represent Australia - ie. the concept of "being fair dinkum" and "tying it up with wire" which the city yutzes might be completely oblivious to, but I assure you that west of the mountains it is reality for most people that this is what being Australian is all about. The cricket team is irrelevant, as its a bloody game, unlike drought, floods, fires etc which are all real things. Similarly with Flame Trees, I suppose it is hard for people who have lived in Sydney all their lives to understand what it is to go "home" for the first time in years, but let me assure you, that song is the most succinct summation possible of catching up with your mates that haven't been seen in years.

Anyway, this discussion is as useless as tits on a bull, as everyone likes what they like, and different songs mean different things to different people.

Posted by: Sam on February 27, 2007 9:11 AM

Whilst it is totally over-exposed, as most of the songs on your list, half decent half shite, "One" is about coming out as a gay person to a parent. I'm pretty sure if the masses knew the truth it wouldn't be the football chant it is today.

Ignore the hype and sometimes these songs are popular because they are actually good, though reviewing the list again - you're pretty much on the money here. Though "I bet you look good on the dancefloor" is a cracker of a pop record - the Sugababes version is a killer!

Posted by: evel on February 27, 2007 9:26 AM

Posted by: JS at February 26, 2007 9:08 AM

I have to say that I have a soft spot for lily allen (alfie is a classic) but the rest of the list is spot on.

And i agree with JS about snow patrol. That song makes me want to eat my own lips.

Posted by: Solo at February 26, 2007 10:19 AM

oh my GOD you are so right! The other weird one that i categorise with Khe Sahn is "Sweet home alabama". Sure it might be catchy in some cultures, but what I cant understand is how so many aussies seem to relate to the song without ever having been to alabama.

Posted by: DJ Johnny at February 26, 2007 3:10 PM

RE chumbawumba - i always thought that was a bit of a pisstake on the beer drinking yobbo culture that got hijacked by the NRL in their commercials (large lads getting knocked down while "i get knocked down" plays in the background). Another death for an otherwise ok song by hijacking?

Posted by: Naomi at February 26, 2007 6:22 PM

Speaking of statistics, I was always STUNNED how bob the builder could make it to #1 and how the "bum dance" even made it on the charts. I get the distinct impression that the charts simply reflect what 14 year old girls find good at a very brief instant in time.

Posted by: Tupelo at February 27, 2007 12:59 AM

I am kinda with you on the true blue front there man - and I agree that there are more poignant songs about australia out there. True blue was once a nice song by a country artist who I respect (but dont necessarily enjoy) but when I heard a complete fKtard singing it out loud in spain i wanted to distance myself from the hijackers (so i went to greece...).

Posted by: Ro on February 27, 2007 9:44 AM

I'm so glad there are people out there that will publicly admit to disliking augie march and bernard fanning.

Here's another one for the list: Brim full of asha - I always thought I was hearing a lame remix of it, then I realised it was just a crap song.

Posted by: steve on February 27, 2007 10:59 AM

I have to agree with the Arctic Monkeys. I don't understand the hype, they're no better or worse than a lot of bands I saw for a fiver around pubs in London.

I think Smells Like Teen Spirit is grossely overated. Anthem for a generation? Fuck off.

Posted by: king_crud on February 27, 2007 11:34 AM

Anything by that God-awful disgrace to Australia "band" - Jet. These guys are the epitome of over-rated - each song is a mere ripoff of something a lot older and a lot better. They couldn't even manage to get an original name for their group for F**** sake. Fake rock and roll at its worst and most offensive to the ears.

Glad to see Keh Sanh got a mention - its also worth mentioning that most of Cold Chisels rubbish is overrated and Jimmy Barnes himself is so overrated and arrogant, its hard to believe the creedence he gets from the musically illiterate drunks at pubs and clubs across Australia.

Anything by Robbie Williams - the first time I heard one of his songs I thought someone was taking the piss out of some other scumbag but it turned out to be a legitimate attempt at "music" - *vomit*

Those hellishly annoying Veronicas or whatever they call themselves - talk about vacuous and .

Special mention: I think the noise pollution is called "flaunt it" (correct me if im wrong) or some other abomination. This pathetic attempt at "music" is no more than a cancer on humanity and forms a large part of the cancer that is modern "music"

I mean hell, every song I have ever heard on top forty radio in the last five years is complete rubbish - who am I kidding?

Posted by: AOXOMOXOA on February 27, 2007 11:55 AM

I have never really taken to this sort of discussion, because what I think is the best song ever, someone will think different.

What? No mention of Wolfmother? All-time winners of the "overhyped, undertalented, unneeded band of the century" award. The fact that they won a Grammy simply confirms that.

Posted by: MegaKay on February 27, 2007 12:40 PM

Hey, 'Phantom Limb' is a great track, even if the new album is no masterpiece. As for all Shins songs sounding the same, you've got to be kidding... they're one of the few bands around that have managed to last more than twelve months without lapsing into formula. Fair enough that you don't like them, but I suspect you haven't actually listened to them much either.

Right with you on Eric Clapton, though (weapons-grade tedium), and Radiohead ('experimental' music for the aesthetically timid). As for U2... I used to want someone to shoot Bono, but now I fear any assassination would only put the final seal on his Martin Luther King pretentions. What to do?

MegaKay, you are treading on thin ice my friend. It is the simplicity of Wolfmother's music, but the impact it has on a listener that makes them popular.

Unlike Jet, who take old sounds that weren't that great to start with and make them worse, Wolfmother seem to take old sounds that were, and always will be great, and make them better.
They took, lets face it, stole the basis for Roadhouse Blues, changed it a little, and gave it balls rather than booze, cranked it up to 11, got their balls to the wall and played it at a million miles an hour, and there you have Woman.
Simple process, but fvck it sounds good. They rediscovered an art which has been lost to rock bands since John Bonham drunk one too many bottles of whiskey - the "Huge" sound.

Posted by: Sam on February 27, 2007 1:35 PM

Actually, Wolfmothers winning of the Grammy and Jet's commercial success is a sure sign of where the global rock fraternity is going - no where! The record companies need to dig a little bit more underground I think.

All the songs listed are boring, and True Blue is the most boring song about Australia ever recorded. Like what about Gangajang's "Sounds of Then." Or The Church's "Under The Milky Way" or The Dingoes "Way Out West." Or anything by Paul Kelly. But I agree with Tupelo about Peter Garrett. The shame is Midnight Oil was never one to flirt with politics but to send strong messages to the politicians on the countries behalf and to get up their noses. But now the main nose getter upper is now flirting with the very thing he hated.

Posted by: Henry Lee on February 27, 2007 2:50 PM

I think The Shins are ace; if this makes me some sorta girly-man, so be it.

At the risk of posting on a day-old blog, which I realise is heavily uncool...

Respect to Curtis, OK? Awesome stage presence, totally spine-chilling voice, eyes like chunks of black ice, and every song a mirror to my teenage discord and confusion. If he was alive, and I was gay, I'd f**k his brains out.

Posted by: Sharpie on February 28, 2007 12:05 PM

"Respect to Curtis, OK? Awesome stage presence, totally spine-chilling voice, eyes like chunks of black ice, and every song a mirror to my teenage discord and confusion. If he was alive, and I was gay, I'd f**k his brains out."

Translation:"I am Ian Curtis's Bitch"

(But I do like Dead Souls, if you haven't picked that up yet.)

Posted by: Anonymous on February 28, 2007 3:47 PM

Take that Sh$t about Radiohead back right now!!! how dare you!

Posted by: Adz on February 28, 2007 5:13 PM

Clearly if you think bloc party sounds anything like Coldplay, Augie March, The Smiths, etc. you are an idiot and know nothing, which makes your previous comments and even this whole blog null and void.

Posted by: Joe on February 28, 2007 5:40 PM

isn't this just a list of popular songs you don't like? The only song there that would make it anywhere on a top list would be One.. Phantom Limb? ffs have some bovaries and make a real call about a band that might actually get on a greatest ever songs list.. like the innate crapness of the rolling stones.

Young Folks? don't set the bar so low you've already surpassed it.

I don't think there would be one radiohead or shins fan that would cite those two songs as the pinnacles of songsmithery, also comparing the context of the time when Creep was written to bands that safely regurgitated the sounds with half the skill ten years later is a little rich.
It's like saying AC/DC or Iggy Pop are crap because they sound like Jet. A bit silly no?

Posted by: andrewb on February 28, 2007 5:59 PM

Hey DJ Johnny, I try requesting b-sides and less known songs but never get them because they're unknown and by extension dance floor killers, even in indie clubs, so sometimes there isn't much choice than to ask for Love Shack and be done with it.

Posted by: Viv on March 2, 2007 12:51 AM

I just have to say that Angels by Robbie gets me so annoyed its frightening. I have never understood why he is so popular, he really isn't doing anything special. In fact just to contradict myself I'll publicly say that his most recent album, which has been panned by the media and his 'fans' is probably his best work in my opinion. Whilst I'm having a rant, I'll also say that the following are all way over-rated. Oasis, lou-mouthed bogans re-hasing The Beatles. Wonderwall is Angels for the indie kids. And just to be controversial I will say that "Imagine" by John Lennon has got to be one of the most over-played songs and despite it being a 'classic' does make me cringe when I hear it these days. There I've said it.

Posted by: MonkeyBoy on March 9, 2007 12:15 PM

Monkey Boy - anyone who has a genuine appreciation for good music will tell you that Wonderwall probably isn't in the best 30 songs that Oasis have put out - its crap - but its not the song's fault that it's overplayed.

Listen to Definitely Maybe from 1994 - sounds for the most part, bugger-all like the Beatles, and is a cracker.

Posted by: Sam on March 9, 2007 2:05 PM

Don Walker is close to the best songwriter Australia has seen. Ian Moss has awesome chops on the axe and an amazingly soulful voice, and Barnesy is Barnesy. Augie March are awesome. Midnight Oil are the best australian band ever, alex lloyd is a chump who has written some good songs, jet are boring, wolfmother are great at what they do but arent for me. the herd are the bomb, shihad and cog are two of the best live acts you could ever hope to see, the mess hall are unbelievably loud for a two piece, The Drones are amazing, Daniel Johns is a genius and is right up there with John Lennon, Maynard from Tool is a wanker but his band are epic. Mike Patton is a weirdo, The beastie boys are my favourite band, The Smiths were overated, The Clash really are the only band that matters, John Bonham is my hero and Eddie Vedder is the coolest man in the world...... Discuss amongst yourselves.